Communication technologies that link electronic devices are well known in the art. Some communication technologies link electronic devices via networks. Examples of such networks include wired computer networks, wireless computer networks, wired telephone networks, wireless telephone networks, and satellite communication networks, among other networks. Within such communication networks, a network infrastructure couples electronic devices to one another.
The need for wireless networking has been addressed by various standards bodies that promulgate interworking standards. One such standards body promulgated the IEEE 802.11 standard that defines a wireless LAN. In a typical 802.11 wireless LAN, a wired backbone couples to one or more wireless access points (WAPs) that wirelessly connect to many computers or other electronic devices that contain wireless interfaces. IEEE 802.11 networks have achieved significant success in servicing wireless communication needs for portable computers, portable data terminals, and other wireless devices that transmit and receive data. However, IEEE 802.11 networks lack high data rate and Quality of Service (QOS) features to support multimedia communications.
Wireless personal area networks “WPAN” enable short-range “ad-hoc” connectivity among portable consumer electronics and communications devices but do not require the infrastructure needed for an 802.11 network. The coverage area for a WPAN is generally within a 10-meter radius. The term “ad-hoc” connectivity refers to both the ability for a device to assume either master or slave functionality and the ease in which devices may join or leave an existing network.
The Bluetooth radio system has emerged as the first technology addressing WPAN applications with its salient features of low power consumption, small package size, and low cost. Raw data rates for Bluetooth devices are limited to 1 Mbps, although the actual throughput is about half of the raw data rate. A Bluetooth communication link supports up to three voice channels with very limited additional bandwidth for bursty data traffic. However, Bluetooth communication links cannot support the data transfer requirements of portable consumer electronics devices that transmit and receive multimedia data, e.g., high quality video applications, audio applications, and multi-megabyte file transfers for music and image files.
Additional limitations placed upon such devices relates to their cost and power consumption. Many devices operating in an ad-hoc network are battery powered. Thus, the power consumption requirements placed on the device by the integrated circuitry servicing its communications should be minimal. Further, because these electronic devices are typically low in cost, the communication circuitry contained therein must be high in performance but low in cost. Operationally stable, high data rate communication circuitry, e.g., RF front end circuitry, frequency/phase reference circuitry, etc., is high in cost. In lower cost applications, components that are highly stable cannot be employed. Thus, these lower cost components suffer from RF carrier frequency drift, symbol clock frequency drift, and other synchronization related problems. In order to support high data rate communications, these operational problems must be overcome.
Thus, there is a need in the art for wireless communication circuit components that support high data rate communications, that consume little power, and that are relatively inexpensive to produce and operate.